St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1887-06-25
THE SPHINX.
The Human-Headed Lion God Al
ways q Marvel.
It Existed Before the Pyramids and Was
Covered With Sand and Restored
When History Was Young
Later Iabors.

Later Iabors.
Bv the ordinary traveller, the Sphinx
has for long been looked upon rs one
Of the wonders Of the world: silently it
has stood there chin-deop in sand. gaz-
ing with far-away look in its eyes.
as if it would probe the very depths Of
eternity. As one gazes up into its
weather-bcaten, time-worn face. one
longs for il to he able to speak and tell
us Of its history. who formed it. and
why. To-day, the energy Of French
engineers is endcavoring to solve, in
part, the question. NJ. Grebaut. the
present keeper Of Antiquities at the
Boulak Museum. has been struggling
valiantly to disinter it from the sand.
which has buried it almost to the throat.
All day long Arabs are employed load
ing trucks with the sand, which they
bring up in buckets to the tramway
above them. This is not the first at
tempt which has been made to uncover
this colossal monument of Egyptian an
tiquity Thothmcs Nv. cleared away the
sand; but by the fourteenth century B.
c. it was buried to the chin; in 1917,
Signor Caviglia brought to light the
flight Of stone steps. forty feet in width,
described by Pliny; and in 1869. at the
time of the opening of the Suez canal.
the great Sphinx was cleared Of sand
as far rs the plateau upon which the
paws rest Excavations southwark are
in progress. the result of which will
show whether the assumption that the
Sphinx stands i'm the middle of a huge
amphitheater hewn by man out Of liv-
ing rock. he true or not.
We go below the level Of the present
ground-for the steps lead down, not
up to the Sphinx-to gaze at the bat
tered monster, and are astoniShed at
his proportions. The human-headed
lion god. the impersonation Of the sun
at rest. is upwards of one hundred feet
in height, and one hundred and ninety
feet in length. From west to east he
lies, i'm a straight line with Khafra's s
Pyramid. his face being towards the
east. His enormous paws, partly
hollow, have been restored in Roman
times. and are well nigh covered with
the scribbles of Greek travellers, who.
like Tom Jones and John Brown Of
these nineteenth-century days. have felt
it incumbent upon them to leave the
memorials Of their visit behind them.
In the space between the paws. which
is thirty-five feet long and ten feet wide.
an altar stands; originally. there was a
small sanctuary here. lined with votive
tablets. but only the stella of Thothmcs
". now remains.
Three temples encompassed the
Sphinx-one to the north, dedicated to
Isis, which we know, from an inscrip-
ton, was still used in the sixth century
B. c., as one P>ametik. who was son Oi
Uzahor. the son Of Noferabra, was then
..thc prophet Of Hormakhu." and oi
Isis. Queen Of the Pyramids. and offered
to them holy incense. A second stood
upon the south side. wherein Osiris
Sokar. the king Of the underworld. was
specially invoked by the pilgrims who
flocked to his worship. The space all
round here was once vast metropolis,
called in the hicratic writings "Ro-set' y
the door Of the death-underworld. and
many strange stories are told Of thi.
spirit-hauntcd. enchanted region. The
third temple is dedicated to Hormakhu
the Sphinx himself.
The age Of the Sphinx it seems i'm
possible to know; but we gather that i
was standing in the days Of Khufu. from
= memorial tablet which speaks Of tn,
temples; for there we learn tina: He
the living Hor. King of the upper ant
lower country -Khufu. he, the dispense
Of life. found a sanctuary Of the goides
Isis, the Queen Of the Pyramid. beside
the temple Of the Sphinx. northwes
from the temple and the city Of Osiris
the lord Of the abodes Of the dead. HI
built his pyramid (thst Of the Lights
near the temple of that goddess; and h
built temple for the Kings daughte
Hontsen. near this temple" 1t existe'
then, at any rate before the days Of tn
Pyramids Of Gizeh; and Maspero think
that if it is not actually prehistoric.
NAV. At all events, be looked upon .
tho Oldest monument in '.ancien
Egypt"
Set into the breast of the Sphinx is tn
celebrated stella of Thothmes Nv. OF tn
twenty-third dynasty. II is fourtee
feet high. and contains long inscriT
ton. recounting how the King owed b